The Alo phone is like Mona Lisa, says Jerome Olivet. Made long ago, but still relevant today. Initially a conceptual product designed with Philippe Starck more than 20 years ago, the Alo was recently relaunched as a refined design concept for a phone.
Made for a future dominated by Siris and Alexas, the Alo phone comes without a screen and relies solely on voice communication. The phone’s body is made of a gelatinous material wrapped around an aluminum unibody, and its form designed to be placed perpetually against the ear. Devoid of a screen, the phone relies on voice input, and comes with a camera (not for selfies) that does some pretty fancy lip-reading to turn voice effectively to text. The lack of the screen enables the Alo to have such an organic, unconventional shape. My personal opinion? It looks too much like a breast implant… but that may just be neo-phobic old me! I although have to give credit to the designers for predicting 20 years ago that we would live in a world heavily dominated by AI voice assistants. That bit couldn’t be truer.
Designer: Jerome Olivet
